This is part of our five-episode pack on how science and technology can fight climate change. With better air conditioning, more whale poop, souped-up plants, and a giant vacuum. If all else fails, planet B. With David Biello, science curator at TED, author of The Unnatural World: The Race to Remake Civilization in Earth’s Newest Age, and contributing editor at Scientific American.

It’s August. It’s hot, and no, you’re not imagining things, it is getting hotter. But whatever New York Magazine says, we can still save the planet. And technology can help.

We kick off our five-part series with a look at one technology the planet can’t live with, and humans can’t (or won’t) live without. Air conditioning. As the planet heats up, we’re blasting it in more places, and more often. Which heats the planet more, so we need more AC, and around and around. But there is a better way. Thanks, in part, to the internet of things. And a little tweak from you.